Specialised student support
QACI
is a school that prides itself on supporting students through the
challenges of senior schooling and life. We have a number
of staff providing support to students.
Connect Coaches, Year Level Coordinators, Guidance Counsellors, and a school Nurse and
Chaplain are all available to support students at QACI, along with their subject teachers and administration staff.
In the first instance if there is a subject specific enquiry, please email the subject teacher. If you have a health and wellbeing query please contact the Connect Coach.
Connect Coaches
Students and Parents are encouraged to contact the Connect Coach in the first instance of required support. Please visit the QACI Staff Page for contact details.
Year Level Coordinators
Each Year Level has a specific co-ordinator and these staff will communicate with students and parents throughout the year.
Guidance Counsellors
Located on Level 4 across from Client Services the Guidance Counsellors are Katrina Hill and Kym Barrett.
Kym Barrett is available 4 days per week - Friday off campus and Katrina Hill is available 4 days per week - Wednesday off campus. Katrina supports students with surnames A-L and Kym supports students with surnames M-Z.
Guidance
Counsellors can provide support with the following but are not limited
to:
- Working directly with students and teachers, support personnel,
family and other specialists / professionals
- Providing guidance and counselling services to students and their
families
- Performing case management and referral services to optimize students’
access and engagement in education
- Preparing and implementing professional and personal skill development
programs for administrators, teachers and parents
- Working collaboratively with other school-based support personnel
to assess and address the needs of students
- Planning or assisting in planning support programs that can help
students achieve positive outcomes
- Identifying factors that can be barriers to the learning and development
of students
- Supporting the personal and social development of students
- Designing and implementing programs regarding education and career
pathways
- Supporting students through tertiary application processes
- Providing career counselling through the year levels
To access the appropriate support for your child, students and parents
are encouraged to contact the Connect Coach in the first instance.
Students and parents can email Guidance Counsellors directly or be referred via the Year Level Coordinators.
Our Guidance Counsellors work across the three year levels and the following will guide you where to connect:
Students with Surname A-L Katrina Hill
Students with Surname M-Z Kym Barrett
This allocation will ensure consistency in providing support for you and
clarifies who to contact when needed.
Guidance Counsellor emails
Kym Barrett:
kbarr20@eq.edu.au
Katrina Hill: khill172@eq.edu.au
School Nurse
QACI has a school based nurse - Jodie Fisher who is available to students.
Jodie is available every Tuesday and is located on Level 4 (beside the Guidance Counsellors). The SBYHN is employed by Queensland Health to provide individual health consultations, support and referral options related to – healthy eating and exercise, sexual health and relationships, personal or family problems, feeling sad or stressed and smoking, alcohol or other drugs. The SBYHN can also provide support regarding student health promotion events. Students are welcome to book an appointment by simply knocking on the SBYHN door or booking an appointment through student services or teaching staff. This is a voluntary and confidential service for young people.
Chaplain
Chaplains are
present in schools at the invitation of the Principal, in consultation
with the local
community, and with the support of the P&C Association. Josie is the chaplain at QACI on
Tuesday and Thursdays. Chaplains are non-teaching support staff whose focus
is on the social-emotional wellbeing of the school community.
The chaplain is employed through Scripture Union Queensland and provides social, emotional and spiritual support to students and the school community and is inclusive of and shows respect for all religious and non-religious beliefs and other stances represented in the school community. The role of the QACI Chaplain is to:
Provide a safe, non-judgmental space
for young people to connect with at school and provides a listening ear, caring presence, and a message of hope.
Run positive, fun activities for students and assist in fostering supportive, caring school communities.
Work with
other members of the school’s support team to care for students
struggling with issues such as difficult relationships with other
children or family members, poor self-esteem, family
breakdown, and depression.
Provide positive adult role models for students.
Provide
spiritual, ethical, and personal support to school communities.
(Parental and / or student written consent is required to participate in
activities with spiritual or religious themes)
The
Chaplaincy Service is available to everyone in the school community
regardless of their religious beliefs.
The best way to make an appointment with Josie is via email on jyarh0@eq.edu.au
Religious Instruction at QACI
Queensland state schools embrace a multitude of cultural, religious and non-religious beliefs and encourage students to grow and develop as a whole person, in particular, in beliefs, values and attitudes. State schools respect the background and beliefs of all students and staff by not promoting, or being perceived as promoting any particular set of beliefs in preference to another.
Religious instruction is not provided at QACI. This decision has been based upon:
Religious Instruction in not part of the QACI chaplaincy program.
Success Coach
Anastasia Hobbs-Brown is the Success Coach and works four days per week; Monday, Tuesday Thursday, Friday at QACI. The Succeed Program provides support to individual students to further develop and maintain their organisational and time management skills. Students engage in fortnightly coaching conversations which guide students to self-reflect and gain skills to enhance their learning, thereby developing their confidence and building habits to strengthen their outcomes. Students are included in the program when a Teacher, Head of Department or Guidance Officer believes the student would benefit from the additional support.
Literacy Coach
Pam Govender is the literacy support teacher and works three days a week, Monday to Wednesday. The Literacy Program provides a safe, supportive environment, conferences with individual students or small groups about their progress and provides targeted assistance across curricula areas to improve literacy skills. Students can access the support when a referral is completed by a subject teacher, Head of Department, or Guidance Officer. Students scheduled on the support timetable attend weekly sessions.
We wish you all a happy and productive year and look forward to supporting you in any way that we can.